Speckle Tracking and Interferometric Processing of TerraSAR-X TOPS Data for Mapping Nonstationary Scenarios

Terrain observation by progressive scan (TOPS) antenna beam steering is utilized for European Space Agency's (ESA's) Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensor for the interferometric wide swath (IW) and extra wide swath (EW) modes. As a consequence of the azimuth steering, the resulting signal characteristics have to be accounted for in SAR interferometric (InSAR) processing. This paper assesses the performance of speckle tracking and spectral diversity (SD) [also referred to as split spectrum or multi-aperture interferometry (MAI)] when applied to TOPS data acquired over nonstationary scenarios, such as glaciers. The characteristics of the TOPS signal, especially the azimuth-variant Doppler centroid, are discussed with particular consideration of along-track surface motion between the interferometric acquisitions. The TOPS specific coregistration requirements are formulated, followed by an analysis of the theoretical estimation accuracy as a function of the estimation window size. A refined adaptive coregistration approach based on SD is suggested. Experimental TerraSAR-X TOPS data acquired over the Lambert glacier, Antarctica, are used to validate the proposed speckle tracking and SD methodologies.

[1]  Francesco De Zan,et al.  Accuracy of Incoherent Speckle Tracking for Circular Gaussian Signals , 2014, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters.

[2]  Fuk K. Li,et al.  Synthetic aperture radar interferometry , 2000, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[3]  R. Scheiber,et al.  Interferometry with TOPS: coregistration and azimuth shifts , 2014 .

[4]  Joong-Sun Won,et al.  Mapping Three-Dimensional Surface Deformation by Combining Multiple-Aperture Interferometry and Conventional Interferometry: Application to the June 2007 Eruption of Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii , 2011, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters.

[5]  Malcolm Davidson,et al.  GMES Sentinel-1 mission , 2012 .

[6]  Gerhard Krieger,et al.  Total zero Doppler Steering-a new method for minimizing the Doppler centroid , 2005, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters.

[7]  Esra Erten,et al.  Generation of three-dimensional deformation maps from InSAR data using spectral diversity techniques , 2010 .

[8]  Michele Manunta,et al.  Geometrical SAR image registration , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[9]  Alberto Moreira,et al.  Coregistration of interferometric SAR images using spectral diversity , 2000, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[10]  Oliver Montenbruck,et al.  TerraSAR-X Precise Trajectory Estimation and Quality Assessment , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[11]  Kenneth C. Jezek,et al.  Synergistic Fusion of Interferometric and Speckle-Tracking Methods for Deriving Surface Velocity From Interferometric SAR Data , 2007, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters.

[12]  Francesco De Zan,et al.  TOPSAR: Terrain Observation by Progressive Scans , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[13]  Hyung-Sup Jung,et al.  Feasibility of Along-Track Displacement Measurement From Sentinel-1 Interferometric Wide-Swath Mode , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[14]  Urs Wegmüller,et al.  Glacier motion estimation using SAR offset-tracking procedures , 2002, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[15]  H. Zebker,et al.  Measuring two‐dimensional movements using a single InSAR pair , 2006 .

[16]  B. Scheuchl,et al.  Ice Flow of the Antarctic Ice Sheet , 2011, Science.

[17]  Dana Floricioiu,et al.  Brief Communication: Further summer speedup of Jakobshavn Isbræ , 2014 .

[18]  Richard Bamler,et al.  Burst-mode and ScanSAR interferometry , 2002, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[19]  E. Rodríguez,et al.  Theory and design of interferometric synthetic aperture radars , 1992 .

[20]  Joong-Sun Won,et al.  An Improvement of the Performance of Multiple-Aperture SAR Interferometry (MAI) , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[21]  Andreas Reigber,et al.  TOPS Interferometry With TerraSAR-X , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[22]  Michael Eineder,et al.  Accuracy of differential shift estimation by correlation and split-bandwidth interferometry for wideband and delta-k SAR systems , 2005, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters.